Friday, 17 May 2013

CATFISH

Over the past 10 years or so i guess i,ve tried and failed to catch a catfish in the UK. I,ve caught a few in France upto low 70lbs but have only ever managed the one of 26lb here and that was when i was targetting carp. I guess i havn,t actually fished for them that much and usually it would be a quick decision overnight session whenever i got a spare evening, not often i can asure you. Anyway the beginning of this week i decided i wanted to have a proper go for them and took a walk round a fishery 15 miles away and had a chat with the anglers there. They all confirmed what i knew in that there was quite a few catfish present upto 90lb. That was enough for me and this weds afternoon saw me hot footing it to the fishery in question kitted out with the heavy gear.

On arriving at the car park a couple of other anglers were just starting to unload their cars so as only fellow anglers can do i approached them and picked their brains about the water. Fortunately they were a couple of good guys who gave me a few pointers and areas to try. Right barrow overloaded with gear, god knows why i need to take so much, and off i trundled around the lake to what has to be the furthest i,ve pushed a barrow. I was knackered and sweating buckets when arrived at the area i,d been told about. I had a browse around and settled for a swim in the middle of a long arm of water which gave me plenty of scope.

An hour later i had 3 rods fishing with luncheon meat, large halibut pellet and large squid and octopus pellet cast to different areas of my swim. Two rods had a groundbait of brown crumb, halibut pellets, cat food, tuna and various oils mixed together and fed around them. The final rod just had a bag of halibut pellets attached to the hook with a chunk of luncheon meat on the hair and launched out to the left away from the baited areas.

Well nothing happened during the night other than a couple of dropped runs until 8am when i was starting to pack up i had a slow run on the luncheon meat rod. Rod picked up, clutch tightened and i leant into a train which just powered of down the lake making me loosen the clutch as it went. Want a fight this catfish put up for 5 minutes, tearing through a couple of weedbeds cutting the plants of and leaving them drifting on the breeze, churning up huge clouds of silt from the bottom as it ploughed along head down. Eventually i had it in the net and there lay my prize of 25lb 2oz of pure slimy muscle.

At last i had caught one by design, i was over the moon i can tell you. I,ll definately be going back to see if i can hook one of the bigguns. Excuse the psycho eyes but i was fighting to stop the fish from curling its tail, and it was a self take picture.

As you can see this fish really didn,t like its picture being taken. I was under the impression that catfish are generally well behaved on the bank, this one really beat me up. He did have the last laugh though as after i slipped him back i leant over to wash the unhooking mat and promptly slid down the wet bank into the lake on my ass right upto my chest. I just sat there and chuckled to myself. It was worth it...........